Nonparametric Analysis Of Reported Cases Of Malaria Attack On Various Sex And Age Groups From 2004 - 2008

ABSTRACT

This study on the non-parametric analysis of reported cases of malaria attack on various sex and age groups was conducted to verify whether a particular sex or age group is affected by malaria more than the other(s) based on a given set of data. Non-parametric techniques were applied in analyzing the data collected from Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Umuahia for the period of five years (2004 - 2008). These techniques include: Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon Rank-sum test, Runs test for randomness, and Kruskal-Wallis H test. The result of the analysis revealed that malaria attack has almost the same effect on both sexes but decreases with increasing age groups. This implies that the older a person is, the more resistant he/she is to malaria and fever. The result of this analysis raised a question which is: "Can one's body system get immune or resistant to malaria?" The answer to this question is left for further research work probably by medical teams or health workers.